To facilitate communications in a wireless access network it is desirable to provide a plurality of wireless access and routing points or nodes among which communications can take place via wireless links, the nodes optionally communicating via one or more wired connection paths with a wired communications network, with wireless terminals communicating with the nodes also via wireless links.
In such a wireless access network, for example, the nodes can be distributed within a geographical region or area within which wireless access services are to be provided, and the wireless terminals can communicate with the wired network via the wireless nodes. The wireless terminals, which typically may include mobile terminals, can have any of various forms, and the communicated signals can comprise any desired form of information. For example, the wireless terminals may include modems and/or PCM-CIA cards for personal computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), mobile or cellular telephones, hybrid combinations of these devices, and so on.
Such a wireless access network conveniently operates in a packet communications mode, in which for example a node is only active (transmitting or receiving radio signals) when it is sending or receiving data packets, and is otherwise in a quiescent state. Typically, packets representing traffic from a wireless terminal are communicated to a proximate wireless access node and are routed through the wireless access network, i.e. via the wireless access nodes, to the wired communications network.
In known packet-based mobile wireless access networks, QoS traffic has been accommodated by creating over a wireless link a “virtual circuit” that is dedicated to a single mobile device or terminal, exchanging signalling messages between the terminal and the network in order for the terminal to reserve resources in the network to meet the QoS traffic needs, and/or adding to each packet information indicating the QoS treatment to be given to the packet.
In each of these cases, all decisions on how to route packets through the wireless network are made independently of the mobile device or terminal. Consequently, routing decisions may not be optimum.
It is desirable to provide an improved method of making routing decisions, and an improved terminal and wireless access network which makes use of such an improved method.